Francis, I'm not sure about "first planet," but AngeliqueEast got it right; Zenith.
Ooops! Sorry for my mistake.
Part IV:
We arrived at Civitavecchia port by 8AM and was given customs approval for leaving the ship. We were instructed to carry our passports to Rome. The same four from our tour of Florence took a cab to the train station, and took the train into Rome. Our first stop was the Vatican Museum, but the lines snaked around over four blocks from the entrance, so we decided to walk to St Peter's Basilica rather than waste three hours in line for a one day visit to Rome.
Since Bill and I visited St Peter's before, and it was Sean and Peri's (from our group) first visit, we decided to split our foursome to provide them the time they needed to see all the interesting stuff in the basilica. As Bill and I walked outside, we ran into another small group from our wine tour, and we decided to travel together on the metro to see the more "important" sites of Rome. We took the Metro towards the Spanish Steps, then stopped for lunch in a quiet street with an outside seating cafeteria. The Spanish Steps looked different, because they no longer had the flowers decorating it.
After lunch, we moseyed towards Trevi Fountain - asking strangers about every few blocks if we were headed the right way. When we arrived at the fountain, it was packed with people. I threw in a coin over my shoulder and made my token secret wish. Another guy and I thought Trevi looked bigger, and decided it seemed that way because it was clean! (It must've been very black when we saw it.) It's tradition to throw in two coins if you want to return to Rome. At my age, twice is enough. LOL
After Trevi, we headed towards the Forum and the Colosseum. Although this was my second visit to the Forum, most of the structures looked different than what I remembered from my first visit. The area seemed much larger this time. (Cleaner?) A few of us purchased a gelato on our walk towards the Colosseum. None in our group went inside the Colosseum, because the lines were too long, and we've seen it before.
We sat in the shade near the Colosseum for about an hour and enjoyed the historic sites, and watched the world go by.
We took the metro back to the train station, and took the train back to Civitavecchia. It was a beautiful day in Rome, and it cost us all of about $37 for the whole day including lunch. The ship charged $89 just for round trip transportation to Rome.
We were scheduled to depart at 8PM, but the ship had engine problems, so we stayed in port for another full day. Some of us were wondering about the cost to the cruise line for the extra day of port charges - they must be very expensive. We later learned that the part had to be shipped from Paris.
We also learned the bad news that evening that we will miss our port call to Malta. I was looking forward to revisiting Valletta again. Damn! I felt sorry for those folks who never visited Malta before and was looking forward to it - more than our visit to the other ports on our itinerary.
So November 12 was a "dead" day aboard our ship. I called it a well deserved "respite day," and spent some time in Civitavecchia. Even purchased a three bottle set of white wine to compare it to "cheapies" in California. It cost less than US$15, and the sales lady threw in a small bottle of red wine - gratis. The ship offered a 40% discount on the tours they offered the previous day to soften the blow of the loss day.
We finished all three bottles during the cruise, and they were much better than I/we expected.
Salute!
Where Mark Anthony and Ceasar made speeches.
Where men fought men and animals - to the death.
It was crowded behind that iron-fenced door.
Returning to Civitavecchia.
Have I bored everyone to tears? LOL
No, your presentation is beautiful, and well done.
Thank you for sharing.
AngeliqueEast, Thank you for responding. I thought I was posting for a vacant theater. LOL
Part V:
After our one day delay in Civitavecchia, we proceeded to Naples. We had to decide what to do in Naples, because neither Bill nor I have ever visited Naples, Pompeii or Herculaneum before.
We didn't have time to visit all three places, because we had to be back on board the ship by 5:30 PM for a 6 PM departure. We decided on Pompeii and Herculaneum. I think they were the right choices.
We took a cab to the Circumvesuviana train station, and took the train to Pompeii. From the Pompeii train station, we just followed the crowds only about a block to Pompeii.
Pompeii is huge! Pompeii is considered by some as one of the most important archeological sites anywhere. It was a thriving city until it was buried with little or no warning in 79 AD when Mount Vesuvius erupted. Pompeii was frozen in time, and they have made casts showing some figures literally frozen in their position at the time of burial by volcanic dust.
The sites in Pompeii are many including the colonnaded Forum, the baths, frescoed houses, the amphitheater, the House of Vetti, the and brothels.
Pompeii is a city of both Roman and Greek influence, and we can observe how they lived almost two thousand years ago by what remains today. Most of the rooms were about ten feet by ten feet built from stone. From my reading of the history of Pompeii, most buildings were two stories high. There are remnants of large water vessels in many places both in rather good shape and those that have not survived well. There are some frescoes - some still in pretty good shape, but most with the wear and tear of the elements and age. Some of the colors are still brilliant as if they were painted recently.
We spent over two hours looking at the ruins, then decided to proceed to Herculaneum in Ercolano.
